Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses a Ghanaian reality TV show featuring a competition between cultural troupes that perform aspects of their community's cultural heritage. It asks how the corporeal and sensorial aspects of local performance genres intersect with the spectacle and sensory appeal of reality TV.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the production of a recent reality TV show on one of Ghana's commercial TV stations, TV Africa, a station geared towards the promotion of African heritage. Omanye Aba features a competition between cultural troupes from various communities in the Greater Accra Region that perform aspects of their community's cultural heritage - e.g. town history, royal funeral rites, marriage rites, traditional dance, et cetera - in a weekly live show from the TV Africa studio. In the week preceding the show the members of the cultural groups, mainly young people, study the details of the assignment from their elders at the chief's palace in their community and transform the traditions into a spectacular choreography fit for television. A jury consisting of traditional spiritual leaders, Ga personalities, and entertainment professionals judges their performances, but the decisive judgment comes from the Ghanaian public, voting via cell-phone technology. Branded by Kasapreko, one of Ghana's major alcoholic beverage manufacturers and sponsor for many traditional festivals, the Omanye Aba show, and TV Africa as a whole, addresses a growing, mainly urban market for 'African heritage' as style. This paper explores the adaptation of local, community based traditions to a globalised reality show format through embodied processes of learning, choreographing, styling and performing. It asks how the corporeal and sensorial aspects of local performance genres intersect with the spectacle and sensory appeal of reality TV in the commercial production of 'African authenticity'.